Education comes from within. You release it by struggle, and thought
—Napoleon Hill
BARELY three (3) decades ago, when a student passed his or her West African
Examinations Council (WAEC) Ordinary Level (O’Level) at credit level in one (1) sitting, they immediately received commendation or a scholarship from the government or private institution as the case may be, to study abroad. Even, some of the brilliant students who had excelled were given the level and came out with distinction and thereafter given automatic scholarship to study outside the shores of Nigeria. It was schemes such as these that made so many prominent Nigerians today to be beneficiaries of government scholarships then. But little can be said of such scenario today.
Then, also, it was pure joy to behold your child having the straight 5 credits required for admission into a higher institution, inclusive of course, the two compulsory subjects of Mathematics and English Language at the WAEC examinations.
Then, too, students were always determined to “burn their mid-night candles” for any examination, which their parents were ready and willing to provide.All available tools for their children to come out in flying colours at the examinations without let or hindrance were made available.That was then, barely three (3) decades ago.
NOW
It is a sad commentary that in these “civilized times, parents and guardians have now changed the narrative by wilfully aiding and abetting examination malpractices, while government institutions are the major players, sadly, of these corrosive vices.
In spite of the different empowered examination bodies set up by the Federal Government to tackle the rising incidence of examination malpractice in public and private schools, it has continued unabated, with the scourge attaining frightening dimensions. The econometrics of establishing a body such as the National Examinations Council of Nigeria (NECON) was aimed at tackling the massive failures and irregularities of WAEC Examinations in Nigeria but unfortunately, the reverse is now the case.
THE REALITY
Findings, incontrovertible that majority of students no longer take their studies with the hitherto burning of mid-night candles seriously. Whether because of the tottering educational policy, apathy has crept in and consequently reflects in the standard of education which a stakeholder warns, that it’s nose-diving dangerously towards the precipice of eclipse. Even with the change of leadership at the highest levels of education, the ugly scourge of education malpractice continues to slide unabated and gloomingly so.
INDICES
Times without number, the National Universities Commission (NUC), had placed a blanket ban on some Nigerian Universities from running degree programmes due to lack of accreditation of some vital courses in their Institutions. More worrisome is that even students that are adjudged to be low in intelligence Quotient(IQ) and thus are dull in cognitive are gaining admissions into Nigerian Universities, without stress, while it is now a common sight to see “Dull” students making excellent grades in their WAEC, GCE, or NECO examinations when curiously, they cannot spell their names, let alone write simple sentences in English. To some extent, Higher Institution graduates now bag first and second class upper degrees that they cannot defend.
It is a bitter pill to swallow that government’s purpose behind setting up these various examination bodies to test the cognitive ability of students in Nigeria is being seriously compromised and withttled by educational manipulators who have seemingly infiltrated the ranks of educational policy formulators at the highest and low levels of the sector.
The UNESCO 26% GDP goal for education in Nigeria is yet to be put into consideration while the exodus of institutions of higher learning leaves much to be desired, considering the foreign currency flight involved.
Recently, it was reported in one of the Nigerian dailies (name withheld) that the tuition and other Sundry fees paid by Nigerian Students in Ghana on Universities alone, amounted to more than the annual budgeted sum for education in Nigeria.
The gloomy reality then, is that there is indeed a clear departure from the high standard that was the lot of the educational system, less than three decades ago and what Nigerian, universities, polytechnic and their lot have succeeded in doing is to produce certificate graduates rather than creative ones in recent times. Fading glaringly in our educational system is the age-long values of hard–work, diligence and studies where a student was seen to burn the mid-night candle if need be in order to ensure they came out in flying colours, where parents drove their children to imbibe these virtues and could not be bothered if their wards repeated a class just to learn “lessons” that hard work pays.
CAUSES OF EXAM MALPRACTICE IN OUR PRESENT DAY EXPERIENCE
CRAZE FOR PAPER QUALIFICATION
With the over- emphasis on paper qualification by potential employers of labour, above and over practical skills acquired in the course of knowledge seeking, our students have acquired so much unbridled drive for certificates rather than acquiring requisite practical knowledge in their chosen fields of endeavour. Even society at large has unwittingly encouraged this inordinate quest by its encouragement of academic accolades even at social functions, thus making mockery of the Nigerian educational system. It is on record that some persons who are not university graduates today have performed better in their theoretical cum practical knowledge, thus making mockery of the whole paper qualification exercise.
Also without contestation is the fact that most of the world’s inventors today never attended formal schools but by dint of practical knowledge and “native” research or intelligence made their mark and are celebrated far more than those whose list of academic laurels appear overflowing and intimidating.
BRAIN DRAIN AT THE IVORY TOWERS
Owing to the lack of requisite infrastructure, conducive learning environment and near absence of motivational incentives in our institutions of higher learning amply demonstrated by the incessant industrial actions by bodies such as Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) among others too obvious to mention, the exodus of many of the nation’s highly cerebral but frustrated lecturers has assumed alarming proportion and is no more news. This scenario without any fear of contradiction has greatly depleted the human resource base of our schools and largely aided in its present state where lecturers get away scot free with sales of substandard handouts rather than professional text books or materials just to exploit them.
It is on record too, that even when some institutions of higher learning have out rightly banned the sales of handouts, some lecturers still engage in it and even leak examination questions to students in exchange of course for money or in the case of female students, both money and sexual relations.
ILL QUALIFIED TEACHERS
Due to the lack of a comprehension overhaul of the educational system, and in some cases, lack of political will by relevant policy formulators/ so many of our schools are “infested” with unqualified teachers in terms of requisite qualification to impact the right knowledge on their students, thus leading to substandard turn out of these students after their graduating examinations
INCESSANT NDUSTRIAL ACTIONS
The wanton effect on the academic performance of students owing to the incessant industrial work to rule actions by the various labour unions of the institutions such as ASUU, NUT etc, has not only resulted in outright disruption of the academic calendar while parents groaned because of the expenses further aggravated by their wards being at home, but has also provided room for proliferation of examination malpractices in Nigeria. This is so because once an industrial action is called off, and in a bid to ensure that all academic activities are hastily completed so as not to have effect on the next semester, the flurry of activities and compromise between the lecturers and students to ensure they get passed is better imagined than described, as the various surveillance apparatus in the system would have gone to sleep or simply gloss ever the “racket” going on so as not be seen to “rock the boat”.
UPSURGE OF “SPECIAL CENTRES”
It is no longer news that high profile case of examination malpractices has taken place at venues designated by examination bodies as “special centers” Even most of the so called “tutorial” lectures organized by these schools and some teachers “connected” to the examination bodies have been found out to be the breeding ground for leaked examination questions of the subjects that the students want to write as entrance examinations!
IMPERSONATION
The geometrical progression of this vice has literally upturned all known safety nets put in place by examination bodies to checkmate malpractices. It is so rampant that even schools that have been known over time to be role models have had their ranks infiltrated by these “ghost” candidates who have been heavily paid by the “bonafide “candidates in full collaboration with those school authorities to checkmate the deluge called brain drain of lecturers and even students to other institutions outside the country.
REVIVAL OF TC11 AND LESS EMPHASIS ON PAPER QUALIFICATION
The government, to all intents and purposes, must urgently ensure that the Teachers Certificate (TC) Two (II) Certificate is revived as well as de-emphasize paper qualification to the detriment of theoretical knowledge application so that every student who gains admission into an institution of learning will know that hard work is the key to academic success in life. It is not enough to boast of so many public and private institutions when we are still faced with the ugly monster of examination malpractice in our education system.
The time to act before we slide further is NOW. Write exams with “Invigilators” and security people watching.!
Even more appalling is the revelation that some private school authorities are fully engaged in examination malpractice in order for their schools to remain tops among their peers.
SOLUTION
One critical need begging for governments’ attention, if examination malpractice is to be curtailed in our public examination, is for the federal government, in tandem with the states, devices a method by which the education sector components are decentralized or if you will permit the term “unbundled”
Another solution to this hydra headed monster is the injection of adequate funds through annual budget, into the sector urgently.
